


Time Roulette

by ZeevaWyte



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Crossover, I Don't Even Know, Self-Indulgent, The Crimson Dragon Is A Mother Hen, Time Travel, Unnecessary Time Travel, technically
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-03-24 16:29:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13815048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeevaWyte/pseuds/ZeevaWyte
Summary: The Crimson Dragon believes that its Chosen need some help and decides to borrow two powerful duelists from the past to assist them. How will Yugi and Joey fair in a city that exists almost sixty years in the future?





	1. There's Always Something

**Author's Note:**

> **I have no excuse for this whatsoever. At this point in time I have no overarching plot and your guess is as good as mine as to why the Crimson Dragon decided to throw Yugi and Joey forwards in time. Updates will be sporadic at best because I have no idea where this is going. But hopefully it’ll be a fun ride.**
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> **No pairings at the moment but again, I have no clue where this is going. I’ll tag them if they manage to slip in there.**  
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> **Fyi the Yu-Gi-Oh timeline is a mess. I looked up the discussion on it and there doesn’t seem to be a general consensus on the exact year 5Ds started, so I picked a number in the middle that was far enough removed for the boys to feel out of place. However, that does mean that the Ushio (Trudge in the dub) in this story is not the same bully that picked on them in school.**
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> **This takes Dark Side of Dimensions as canon. Seto is there because he found a way back after his and Atem's duel. (who won? we'll never know) He's Seto freaking Kaiba and he does whatever the heck he wants, screw the rules of the afterlife.**
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> **English names because I always get the Japanese ones mixed up.**

The first thing Yugi became aware of was a slight buzzing sensation across his skin, like his whole body had gone numb and was just now regaining proper circulation. The tingling feeling faded quickly though, leaving him only half conscious and disoriented.

 

He blinked sluggishly and squinted, trying to make sense of the blurry shapes in front of him.

 

_Where- where am I?_

 

After a few seconds his eyes finally focused, and he recognized the metal bars of a fire escape and the bulky mass of the dumpster next to it.

 

_An alley? But how-?_

 

“ _Ugh_ … anybody get the license plate on that truck?”

 

At the sound of his friend’s voice Yugi forced his body to move from where he was lying on his stomach, pushing up enough to lift his head and look towards the sound. The blond duelist was sprawled out on his back a few feet from him, right hand rubbing at his face groggily.

 

“Joey?”

 

“Yug’?” Joey pulled his hand away and tilted his head to look in Yugi’s general direction, squinting at the blurry shape of his best friend. “What happened? Where are we?”

 

Yugi shook his head and rubbed at his own face, pushing himself off the ground unsteadily until he was sitting upright. “I don’t know. The last thing I remember was talking to you while we were headed home from Duke’s.”

 

It had been several months since the Cube incident. Summer was fading fast and that night had been the first time all his friends had been free at the same time since they went their separate ways.

 

It hadn’t been easy to do ether. After they had seen Tea off to America, the time she spent pursuing her dreams and the difference in time zones made it hard to get a hold of her for more than half an hour at a time. Most days saw Tristan working at his father’s factory and while this meant he was free in the evenings, he was usually too exhausted to do anything. Duke had his game shop and restaurant to run, and Joey was ether participating in local Duel Tournaments or spending time with Serenity who was working at a fast food restaurant. Bakura was taking Summer classes at a university, Mai was somewhere in Europe (she seemed to be in a different country every time they talked to her), and Yugi himself had been helping his Grandpa with the shop and working on his own game ideas.

 

They all still talked of course, but there was just something different about hanging out together, even if two of them were over video chat.

 

Not surprisingly, Tea was the one who had brought it up. They had spent the next week talking and rearranging schedules before they found a day where they could all take some time to catch up. Duke had closed the shop early and set up a room for them with seating, lots of food, and two big screens so that Tea and Mai could join in as much as possible. Serenity had come with Joey and Yugi invited Mokuba who, to _everyone’s_ surprise, actually managed to convince his brother to come with him.

 

Seto remained distant and aloof as always, maintaining that he was only there because of Mokuba. But he had stayed for over two hours, conversing with Yugi, Duke, and Mai about various topics and amusing himself with what seemed to be his favorite pastime when around them.

 

Antagonizing Joey.

 

After the Kaiba brothers had taken their leave everyone else slowly began to trickle out.

 

Mai was meeting another friend for dinner and signed off with a flourish. Tristan had an early morning and decided to head out, offering to take Serenity to the train station only to get into an argument with Duke. This resulted in Serenity asking Bakura to go with her just so the other two wouldn’t get into a fistfight. Tea left after promises of more stories next time they talked, which left Yugi and Joey to say goodbye to Duke and walk home well after dark.

 

And now they were waking up in an unknown alley in the middle of the day.

 

“Yeah, that’s the last thing I remember too.” Joey pushed himself to sit up, rubbing his head and looking around. “So, we wake up in an alley that I don’t recognize and neither of us can remember how we got here.” He shot a grin at Yugi. “I thought it’d been a bit too quiet lately.”

 

Yugi couldn’t help but smile back at his friend, even if it was a bit apprehensive.

 

“Yeah.” It _had_ been weirdly calm recently, and it was just his luck that something like this would happen right as he was getting used to the slow life. He looked to the end of the alley where he could barely make out some kind of street. “We should see where we are. Then we can figure out what happened.”

 

Joey nodded and hauled himself to his feet, holding out a hand to the smaller duelist. “Sounds like a plan.”

 

Once upright they did a cursory check of themselves to make sure nothing had disappeared while they were out. Neither of their wallets were missing and Joey still had his duel disk on his arm, so it seemed like who or whatever brought them here weren’t interested in robbing them.

 

Both teens still let out audible sighs of relief when they found their decks right where they were supposed to be, all cards present and accounted for. After all the two of them had been through, neither felt very comfortable with their cards out of arm’s reach.

 

Satisfied that everything was in order, they turned and headed toward the sunlight.

 

As they came to the end of the alleyway Yugi saw that he had been right. It was a small street, though it seemed like most of the traffic was pedestrians and bicycles. A few cars passed every now and again, but it looked like this was somewhat of a tourist area with several shops and food trucks scattered down the road.

 

“You know where we are Yug’? ‘Cause I got no clue.”

 

Yugi shook his head. “I’ve never seen this area before. But at least we ended up somewhere people speak Japanese.” He said as he caught snippets of conversation from the people who walked past them. “If all else fails we could just ask for directions.”

 

“Psh,” Joey waved a dismissive hand, “We don’t need no directions. This is a touristy area, there’s gotta be a map around here somewhere.”

 

Yugi rolled his eyes and chuckled at his friend’s stubbornness. That prideful streak and seeming inability to ask for directions had gotten them lost on more than one occasion. But he was right, if there were tourists here then there had to be some kind of indication of which way to go.

 

They picked a direction at random and joined the crowds of people on the sidewalk, keeping their eyes peeled for anything that looked like it could help them figure out where they were.

 

Naturally Joey, being taller, spotted what looked like a holographic news stand first and headed towards it, tugging on Yugi's sleeve to get him to follow.

 

They were almost to the stand when a peculiar looking vehicle drove past and stopped at the light about half a block down. Both of them stopped and stared at it.

 

“Whoa,” Joey said, awestruck, “I’ve never seen a motorcycle like _that_ before.”

 

Yugi was frozen for _completely_ different reasons. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of his lungs and it took him several seconds to remember how to breathe.

 

_“-I have.”_

 

Once he could move his limbs again he rushed forward and skidded to a stop in front of the holographic screen, eyes scanning it frantically before catching on a series of numbers in the top right corner.

 

“… Joey?”

 

“Yeah Yug’?” The blond had been startled by the smaller teen’s rush and quickly followed, slightly worried by his tone. “What is it?”

 

The King of Games stared at the numbers for another moment, as if they might change to make more sense than they were now.

 

“... I don’t think we can find our way back on our own.”

 

In nondescript glowing letters was the date:

 

August 12, 2072.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Muahahah! Cliffhanger!**
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>   **Don't worry though, they'll be fine. Unless they get mobbed by fans...**
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> **It’s my headcanon that Duel Monsters is the equivalent of all sports in our universe combined. Pretty much everyone knows about it and there are scholarships, schools, and arenas dedicated to the game but not everyone plays it seriously or knows the history.**
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>   **Which means that Yugi is kind of like the Babe Ruth or Michal Jorden of Duel Monsters (if not a bit more famous). Everyone who is serious about the game would probably recognize him on sight (like the 5Ds crew), and if someone knows anything about the game they’ve most likely heard his name at some point.**
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>   **But they might not know exactly what he looks like. There are also people who just watch/play for fun and don’t know of him or simply don’t care about the game at all (weirdos). Duel Monsters is huge but not all-consuming. There is life outside of it (however boring), which is my explanation of why he’s not swarmed by people the second he steps out of the alley.**
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>  **Thanks for reading! <3**


	2. My Kingdom for A Map (or A Time Machine)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yugi and Joey try to navigate the city and meet someone who looks _eerily_ familiar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Well, this ought to be fun.**
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>  **This story is oddly therapeutic to write. I've been working on it in between school work and it's relaxing to just write whatever comes to mind.**  
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> **Mentions of Jaden and the events of Bonds Beyond Time, with the belief that the three of them hung out for a while after the duel. I mean, they beat Paradox at noon and it shows them going their separate ways when the sun sets. That’s like, at least six hours we didn’t get to see. Which annoys me because the movie was only 45 minutes long which is way too short. I would have gladly sat and watched another half an hour of the three of them just wandering around Domino and sharing stories. Besides, I highly doubt ether Jaden or Yusei would miss out on the chance to spend time with the most famous duelist in history.**
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> **Also, big thank you to the anon who brought my attention to the fact that I had this story marked as complete even though it’s clearly not. I posted that chapter at one in the morning after being awake for 18 hours and there were several mistakes that I have since gone back and fixed. Love you guys <3**
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> **And with all that out of the way, we return to our intrepid time-travelers.**

_“2072?!?”_

 

“Shh! Joey, keep your voice down!” Yugi looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to them after his friend’s outburst. “I know it’s crazy-”

 

“ _Crazy?_ ” The blond duelist looked at him incredulously. “Yug’! the last time I looked at a calendar it was _2007!_ ”

 

“I know! But that means you need to calm down! We’re in the future and that means we have to be careful. We don’t know what all’s changed.” Yugi took another look at their surroundings, paying attention to the small details this time. “This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with time travel and it’s tricky. At least we didn’t get sent to the past, that would have been worse.”

 

Joey crossed his arms as he stared at the board again. “The whole thing with Atem’s Memory Kingdom sure was trippy, but it wasn’t really time travel so I don’t think it counts.”

 

Yugi shook his head. “That’s not what I was talking about.”

 

“What do you mean Yug’?” Joey frowned at him. “You’ve got other times you traveled through time?”

 

“Not me.” Yugi paused, thinking back. “Well, not very far. Just a few minutes, but I met three people who did. It was at one of Pegasus’ events in Domino, after Battle City. A man named Paradox came from the future to try and kill him and bring an end to Duel Monsters.”

 

“ _End_ Duel Monsters???” His friend interrupted with wide eyes. “Why on earth would he wanna do that??”

 

Yugi shook his head. “Paradox blamed the game for ruining his time period. He said that it only brought pain and suffering. The two other people I met were from different eras and followed him when their own times began to collapse because of his meddling. The three of us together managed to defeat him and set things right.”

 

He looked over at the intersection and pointed to where the strange motorcycle had just pulled off. “That’s where I recognize that from, it’s called a duel runner. One of the duelists who helped me fix time had one, it’s what he used to get to the past.”

 

Joey blinked a few times before grinning. “So they’re _time-traveling_ motorcycles?”

 

Yugi shook his head again. “No, unfortunately for us. He had another power that let him do that. I think it was just easier to use the runner than go by himself.” He frowned thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s why we ended up unconscious...”

 

“Well speculation’s all well and good.” Joey put his hands on his hips and surveyed the area. “But it doesn’t help us figure out what to do stuck sixty years in the future.”

 

“No, but if there are duel runners here then maybe this is around his time.” Yugi stepped forwards and tapped on the display, pulling up a small interface window. “If we can find him maybe he can help us get back home.”

 

“Huh, I didn’t think about that.” Joey relaxed his arms and looked over Yugi’s shoulder as he searched the database. “So you really think this guy can fix this?”

 

“I don’t know if he can get us back to our own time,” Yugi glanced back at his friend, “but I do know he’ll do whatever he can to help.”

 

“Alright, if you trust him I’ll follow your lead.” Joey leaned back, crossing his arms again. “What’s his name anyway?”

 

“Yusei. Yusei Fudo.”

 

* * *

  


“So you’re telling me that they play Duel Monsters _on_ the motorcycles?”

 

“They’re called duel runners Joey.” Yugi repeated patiently, busy keeping an eye out for the building they had found on the map. “And yes, that’s what they’re built for. They have a special mode and duel disk built in, and there are new rules and spell cards specifically for riding duels. I think Yusei even mentioned a stadium with a track inside it for tournaments.”

 

“Aw, man. That’s so cool!” Joey stretched his arms up and rested them behind his head, looking down at the smaller duelist as they walked. “You think Yusei’d let me drive his? I’d _love_ to take something like that out for a spin.”

 

Yugi tilted his head thoughtfully. “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him. But he might, if you’re careful.”

 

Joey grinned, winking and gesturing at himself with his thumb. “Ah, c‘mon Yug’ you know me. Careful is my middle name!”

 

Yugi looked at his friend and simply raised an eyebrow. “Is that why you tripped up the stairs and dropped the pizzas four days ago because you didn’t want to wait?”

 

“I was hungry!” The blond duelist defended, crossing his arms with an over-exaggerated pout. “And they were still edible! It’s not _my_ fault those stairs were shorter than normal.”

 

Yugi laughed lightly and shook his head, returning to his search. “I know you can be careful when you need to, it’s just a lot of the time you aren’t.”

 

Joey put a hand over his heart dramatically. “Betrayed by own best friend! How could you?”

 

“Easily.” Yugi shot back with a grin.

 

“Ouch. That hurts Yug’.”

 

Yugi was about to reply but suddenly caught sight of what they were looking for. “There it is.”

 

“Finally. I haven’t walked this much since Egypt.” Joey looked up at the building as they went towards it. “So why are we at a police station exactly?”

 

“Because after the duel with Paradox the three of us hung out for a while, and I remember Yusei mentioning that one of his friends is a police officer who used to not like him.” Yugi explained as they passed through the doors. “If we can find him then maybe he could tell us where Yusei is.”

 

Joey tilted his head. “Why didn’t he like him?”

 

“I don’t really know.” Yugi admitted with a small frown. “Yusei didn’t say much about it, just that he got on his bad side.” He looked at Joey. “I know he got in trouble with the authorities at some point, maybe that’s when it happened.”

 

“You sure do know a lot about this guy for only knowing him less than a day.”

 

Yugi shrugged. “You learn a lot about a person by watching as much as listening. After we beat Paradox we basically spent the next several hours just sharing life stories, and none of us were even close to finished when we separated. Yusei is a pretty reserved guy but he’s easy enough to read if you know how.”

 

Any further conversation was cut short as they reached the front desk.

 

“Excuse me,” Yugi began with a kind smile at the receptionist, “do you know if an officer Trudge is here? A friend of mine knows him and we could really use his help.”

 

The woman behind the computer blinked in surprise but was quickly taken by Yugi’s charm. “I’m sorry,” She smiled apologetically. “I don’t know if he’s here. But I can check.”

 

“That would be great, thank you.”

 

Joey wandered off to read the posters on the wall as Yugi waited patiently for her to check the computer.

 

“It looks like you’re in luck.” She spoke eventually, smiling. “He just got back from checking the security at the Kaiba Dome for the upcoming tournament. I’ll let him know he has visitors if you want to wait here.”

 

Yugi nodded, giving her another smile. “Thank you very much.”

 

“Of course.” She responded kindly. “I’m glad I could help.”

 

Yugi made his way to a row of chairs in the corner and sat, simply watching the few people going in and out of the lobby. Eventually Joey came over to join him and Yugi told him what the receptionist said.

 

The two made idle conversation for a few minutes until the elevators opened to reveal a sturdy uniformed man with an intimidating scar on his face.

 

The officer walked over to where they were sitting and looked down at them, arms crossed and frowning. “Are you the ‘visitors’ I was told about? This better be good kids, I’ve got serious work to do.”

 

Yugi and Joey stood up quickly, both struck by the same thought.

 

Joey was the one to voice it though. “You, uh… You wouldn’t happen to know a Tetsu Ushio by any chance, would ya?”

 

Trudge scowled and made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. “Unfortunately. That deadbeat’s my old man. Wasn’t worth the space he took up. My mother’s a saint for putting up with him for as long as she did.” He tilted his head and frowned. “Why’d you ask?”

 

Yugi shook his head quickly and waved his hands. “Ah, no reason! We were actually hoping you could help us find a friend of ours.” He rubbed the back of his neck and grinned up at him sheepishly. “See, we’re not from the city and got seriously turned around when we got here. But then I remembered that Yusei told me about having a friend on the police force, and I was hoping that you might be able to point us in the right direction.”

 

Trudge’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “You’re friends of Yusei’s?”

 

Yugi smiled brightly. “Yeah. He offered to draw us a map to his place, but _someone_ -” he shot a look at Joey, “insisted that we didn’t need it.”

 

“Hey!” The blond duelist complained, catching on and crossing his arms indignantly. “We would’a been fine if this city weren’t built like a freaking maze.”

 

“It’s not _that_ bad, you’re just awful at directions.”

 

Their argument had the exact effect Yugi hoped it would as Trudge chuckled, previous question forgotten.

 

“It happens to the best of us kid.” He patted Joey on the shoulder sympathetically and smiled at the two of them, lifting a hand and pointing a thumb towards the desk to his left. “Let me just get the receptionist to print up a map and I’ll show you where Yusei’s place is at.”

 

The two teens waited patiently for him to return and listened carefully to his explanation of how the street system worked as the officer pointed out the best ways to go on the marked-up map.

 

“It’s a two-story building with a garage on the first floor. Zora’s the one who owns the building, so if you don’t know which one it is just go to the biggest one and ask for her.” He held the map out to them. “Make sure you tell her you’re a friend of Yusei’s though, she doesn’t take well to people trying to meet him just because he’s famous.”

 

Yugi grinned brightly and took it. “We will! And thank you so much! This is even better than I had hoped for.”

 

Trudge waved the thanks off with a smile. “Don’t mention it. Any friend of Yusei’s is a friend of mine. Just stay out of trouble you two.”

 

“No promises!” Joey called back with a grin, waving as they made their way out.

 

Yugi turned to Joey, matching smiles on both their faces as he held up the map. “C’mon! Let’s go find Yusei.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Where did Yugi learn to read people so well you ask?**
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> **He’s known Seto Kaiba for four years.**
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> **Next to that guy Yusei’s an open book.**
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> **On another note, I have discovered that I really like writing Joey. Don’t know why. I just like him. He and Yugi are a lot of fun to write.**
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> **And before anybody yells at me, no I don’t think Yugi told his friends about meeting Jaden and Yusei. He might have mentioned them vaguely in passing, but he’s the one from the earliest era and is pretty important to history. Meaning that anything he does differently (like telling his friends about the future) could seriously change the timeline and he’s not gonna risk it.**
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> **I’m of the opinion that time is a bit more stable than Hollywood would like us to believe. That time wants to go a certain way and naturally corrects itself, meaning that only big things (like killing someone as influential as Pegasus) can really make a significant impact. But Yugi is the cautious sort and would rather be safe than sorry, especially when it comes to his friends. New or old.**


End file.
